OREANDA-NEWS. Network Rail, London Midland and CrossCountry are reminding passengers that as part of a £100m investment the railway at Bromsgrove will be closed for 12 days from Wednesday 26 October.

The scheme at Bromsgrove which forms part of the national Railway Upgrade Plan has already delivered the new Bromsgrove station. The next phase of the scheme will be to reconfigure the track, points and crossings in the area around Bromsgrove station, and bring into use the new signalling between Five Ways (Birmingham) and Ashchurch in Gloucestershire, in preparation for electrification to Bromsgrove. This will increase the number of trains serving Bromsgrove station from December 2017.

In order to achieve this the line at Bromsgrove will be closed for 12 days between Wednesday 26 October and Sunday 6 November. Throughout the closure of the line there will be alterations to services to and from Bromsgrove, Hereford and Birmingham.

Richard Dugdale, senior sponsor for Network Rail said: “This £100m investment at Bromsgrove is key to modernising the railway through the area and providing passengers with a more reliable, better railway. This is the latest programme of work in the scheme after the successful delivery of the new Bromsgrove station which began welcoming passengers in July.

“There is never a good time to close the railway for any length of time but we have looked at all options and worked with London Midland and CrossCountry to complete this work at a time which will cause least disruption to passengers.

“Our Railway Upgrade Plan is delivering significant investment into the railway network which will provide a better, more reliable railway for passengers.”

Steve Fisher, London Midland head of Regional Services said “We will do all we can to minimise the inconvenience to our passengers during this upgrade.  Electrification will mean we can add lots more trains and lots more services between Bromsgrove and Birmingham. This extra capacity will also benefit passengers  travelling to Hereford and Worcester as local rail users switch to the more frequent Bromsgrove services.” 

Ben Rule, Production Director at CrossCountry, said: “A great deal of effort has been made to deliver a plan that causes the least inconvenience to our customers travelling between the West Midlands, Wales and the South West. However, we realise this is not always possible and want to thank those customers affected for their patience while these important works take place. When completed, this will deliver extra capacity and more reliable journeys on a very important part of Britain’s railways.” 

About Network Rail

Network Rail owns, manages and develops Britain's railway - the 20,000 miles of track, 40,000 bridges and viaducts and the thousands of signals, level crossings and stations (the largest of which we also run). In partnership with train operators we help people take more than 1.65bn journeys by rail every year and move hundreds of millions of tonnes of freight, saving almost 8m lorry journeys. We employ 36,000 people across Britain and work round-the-clock, each and every day, to provide a safe, reliable railway.

About the Railway Upgrade Plan

The Railway Upgrade Plan is Network Rail's investment plan for Britain's railways. It makes up two-thirds of Network Rail's £40bn spending priorities for the five years to 2019 and represents the biggest sustained programme of rail modernisation since the Victoria era. It is designed to provide more capacity, relieve crowding and respond to the tremendous growth Britain's railways continue to experience; passenger numbers have doubled in the past 20 years and are set to double again over the next 25 years - so we need to continue to invest in building a bigger, better railway.